[Stronsaylimpet] 21 years ago!

[Limpet editor]

It was 21 years ago today (2 Feb 2004) that we arrived on mainland 
Orkney. Here are the first few lines of "/The Fletcher Saga/", my 
account of our journey from Scarborough to Orkney and the first few 
years of our stay on Stronsay.  The attached photograph was taken just 
before the enormous removal van arrived!

"2 Feb 2004. An enormous removal van arrived on the morning of Friday 30 
Jan. All our effects were swiftly and efficiently packed by 4 pm and 
transported into storage in York whilst we stayed in a local hotel 
overnight before setting forth on Sat 31 Jan. The weather forecast 
proved to be wildly optimistic. The promised showers and bright 
intervals turned out to be driving rain, sleet, and snow so we changed 
our plan to drive north on the A68 to Edinburgh via Jedburgh - crossing 
the Cheviots in that weather was something we did not wish to 
contemplate. Instead, we headed west for Carlisle and the A74/M74. This 
road proved to be quite well ploughed and salted/gritted so we reached 
Glasgow by dusk and stayed the night. On Sunday the weather was improved 
but still bitterly cold with lots of snow lying quite deep in places; it 
was especially bad crossing the Cairngorms where only one lane of each 
dual carriageway was clear and even then, quite deep in slush. Our 
progress northwards continued to Thurso and a very pleasant hotel where 
we had a hot bath and an excellent meal before falling into bed utterly 
exhausted. Today (Monday 02 Feb) we drove to Scrabster (just two miles) 
and at noon boarded an almost empty ferry for a smooth trip across the 
Pentland Firth to Stromness - it felt strange buying two single tickets."

The full story is available online at
https://claremontstronsay.co.uk/FletcherSaga/TheFletcherSaga20231020.pdf.

-- 
Bruce Fletcher, Editor, Stronsay Limpet
www.stronsaylimpet.co.uk
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